The Long View

In his memoir, 14 Minutes, Alberto Salazar talks about the cautious, long-term approach he took in his early years working with Galen Rupp (whom he's coached for more than a decade). "I kept him from overreaching," Salazar wrote, "refusing to let him make the same mistakes that I'd committed over and over as a young runner." Even now, he notes that Rupp has yet to run a marathon, even though by the time he was Rupp's age, Salazar had run eight and was well into his decline.

As anyone who watched the Olympics last summer will remember, it was a strategy that paid off, with Rupp sprinting to 10,000m silver--the first 10,000m medal for an American male since Billy Mills in 1964.

Most recreational racers also claim long-term goals, one of the most frequent being, "I want to be doing this for the rest of my life." But how many of us really work to a long-term plan? We want to be fast now, and think that if we just work intensely enough for a few months, we can have that huge PR we've always dreamed of and still run for a lifetime. Long-term goals, however, require thought, planning and changing bad habits for good ones. If you're committed to working progressively and waiting for the goal to come to you, here are some steps you should take.

1. ACCEPT A LONG LEARNING CURVE.

Masters runner John Keston, who at one time was the oldest man to run a sub-3:00 marathon, first took up running when he was 55--an age at which most of us are starting to decline. But it wasn't until age 62 that he set his PRs. Even runners who take up the sport later in life need about seven or eight years to reach their peak performances, he wrote in his 2010 memoir Expressions of Aging. "During that time they're building training base and gaining experience."

If that applies to older runners fighting the aging clock, it applies even more strongly to younger ones. "It takes about six to eight years to develop a runner," says Heike McNeil, head coach of Northwest Christian University in Eugene, Ore. "I get athletes all the time who want to run 80 miles a week and I'm like, 'No, you're not. The maximum increase is about 10 miles a week per year, and you're not going to do any more than that.'"

If that sounds conservative, that's the whole point. The Internet is full of programs for faster progression. The world is also full of injured or burned-out runners.

"Americans have difficulty thinking in the long term," says Bob Williams, assistant coach at McNeil's cross-state rival, Concordia University in Portland--even though the strongest benefits come not from intense training bouts but from staying healthy, year after year. "I think if people learned to train a little bit less intensely, they would stay healthier longer," Williams says.

Amy Yoder Begley, a 2008 Olympian-turned-coach, agrees. "The question to ask," she says, "[is] 'Would you rather be 90 percent and healthy at the start of the race, or injured on the sidelines?'"

2. LOOK BEYOND THE NEXT RACE.

"Most recreational athletes should be thinking at least one to two years out," says Williams.

Yoder Begley concurs, saying a two-year plan gives runners ample training time, as well as the opportunity to experiment with training techniques and strategies. "It also gives [you] the sense that each race or workout is a steppingstone," she says.

It helps to realize that for most of us, the easy gains are in the past. "It's a lot easier in a 5K to go from 30 minutes to 21 than to go from 21 to 18," says Chicago-based coach Brendan Cournane. "In a marathon, it's easier to go from 4:30 to 3:30 than to go from 3:30 to 3:15."

This doesn't mean you should be writing out training schedules years in advance. Rather, it's more a change in mindset that reduces the sense of urgency that so often leads to avoidable injuries.

"I always encouraged my college runners to think in terms of about a 10 percent improvement during their four years at college," says Jack Daniels, author of Daniels' Running Formula. "The point was not to think of how much better you want to get this year. Sure, it is good to have short-term goals on the way to the long-term goals, but sometimes things come around more slowly than you would like."3. DO YOUR OWN THING.

Paul Greer, coach of the San Diego Track Club, says nobody should base training, mileage, or racing plans on what works for others. You can't train like Olympians Meb Keflezighi or Ryan Hall if you're on your feet all day at work; you may not even be able to train as intensely as your friend with a desk job. Be realistic in the assessment of what you really have time and energy to do.

The same goes for training groups. Yes, it's often said that the best way to get faster is to run with faster runners. But that only applies if you also use common sense.

"The worst type of condition someone can get--worse than a stress fracture--is being overtrained," says Greer. "It's very important that one basically knows their limitations--what they're capable of doing--as well as having realistic goals and training."

4. MAKE TIME FOR BASE.

Speed work gives the quickest short-term bang for the buck, but the acidosis that comes from intense anaerobic effort can put the kibosh on simultaneous aerobic improvement, says Jason Karp, Ph.D. in exercise phsiology and author of Running for Women.

"That's not going to make good runners in the long term," Karp continues. "To raise performance to a higher level, it must come from increasing the base of the training pyramid with more aerobic work."

Yoder Begley adds that this is yet another reason to have a long-term plan, because that can help you be patient while building that base.

How much base is the minimum you want to build up to for long-term improvement? There's no one-size-fits-all formula, but Williams says the "basics" are 25-35 miles a week for 5K, 40-45 for 10K, and 50-60 for the half marathon. Cournane cites similar figures, adding that you also want to be comfortable with long runs of 11-15 miles at 5K and 10K, and 15-18 miles for the half marathon.

But not all runners are alike. "We individualize our training," says McNeil. Recently, she had two 5K stars. "One trained like a 1500m runner. The other [trained] like a 10K runner. They did about the same."

5. TAKE A BREAK ALREADY.

Every fall, Bernard Lagat takes a five-week break. "Rest is a good thing," he told the Wall Street Journal last September. During that period, he added, he typically gains about eight pounds--no problem, because he'll train them off again before he reaches peak racing shape, anyway.

Other athletes force themselves to take shorter rest breaks twice a year, even though it defies that ingrained voice that's scared of getting out of shape. If you don't do this occasionally, you'll stagnate, says Greer. "You can't just go from one thing to the next to the next, or 10 years later you'll be burned out."

Yoder Begley adds that even the weight gain during a rest break can be a good thing. "This goes against a lot of people's thought processes," she says. "However, especially for women who tend to be very lean and become amenorrheic, the weight gain can help restart the hormones and give the bones a boost of protection."

Rest can even turn a minor setback into a blessing. As an example, Greer cites Gerry Lindgren, who in the 1960s "was training like a madman," trying to break the 6-mile world record, which he did with Billy Mills during his goal race. He ran so hard in training, Greer says, that he wound up in the hospital. "He was sidelined for a week," Greer says. "He probably wouldn't have done it if he'd continued on the path he was on."

6. DO IT ALL.

Experts suggest finding a variety of races to run--on the track, trails, roads--and at varying distances.

Yoder Begley's husband and coach, Andrew Begley, agrees. "Mix it up," he says. "Even if [you] are focused on marathons and halves, doing a season of shorter races will allow [you] to improve economy at faster paces. This will carry over to the longer races. Too many runners plateau because they never change up their training and racing."

7. KEEP IT FUN.

Remember that very few of us do this for a career. Running is a hobby--a means of self-expression. "If you're constantly pushed and told to go harder, you don't love it anymore," says college coach McNeil. And it's not just collegians who can wind up with what she calls "a weird love/hate thing" with running. Recreational runners are quite capable of becoming their own Little League parents.

Nor should you ever forget the things that give you joy. "Go watch a middle school or high school race and remember why you started running," says Yoder Begley. "Their energy can motivate you."

Or, find a favorite run and come back to it for periodic renewal. "Mine is above the cliffs in Del Mar," says Greer. "It's just so beautiful it invigorates me."

Reconnecting with your own reasons for running can help drown the voices that say you have to be fit and race-ready every day, and allow you to enjoy the process that leads to long-term, more satisfying success.

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